The beauty of nature

One of the benefits of living in London is there is always something interesting going on, this is true for anywhere, but like Tokyo, London offers an overload to the senses. On a “research trip” to the hipster areas around Shoreditch and Whitechapel, Lady Saruyama and I went to the Whitechapel gallery. One of the other benefits of living in London is the incredible amount of free art and museums that is available…something which we often over look in this country.

It was here that I saw in person some of the most incredible art I had ever seen…the photographs of the German photographer Karl Blossfeldt. What made it so incredible was that it was simply close up photographs of nature, showing incredible structure and beautiful lines. Even more incredible was the homemade techniques he used way back in the day. Some of the shots for you…

What struck me was something I often think about when strolling in the park or more often than not driving along, is just how beautiful the natural world can be without our intervention. As a bonsai artist, sometimes it strikes me as very arrogant to think I can improve on what is naturally incredibly interesting and aesthetically pleasing. Other times it strikes me as very reassuring to be in constant contact with the natural world, just being in the garden and looking at the day to day development of the trees is plenty to please the aesthete in me.

Makes you think doesn’t it…and as some other German bloke once said…

“We have to remember that what we observe is not nature herself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning”

Share this article:

0

About Saruyama

2 Comments

Musing on beauty – a fine way to spend sunday. I wonder if all that is London acts as yin, to bonsai as yang. If true, the Londoner has an advantage over his northern cousins in developing trees in interesting and beautiful new directions, until the pollution kills them